Fasting in Nature
It often occurs to me that in nature fasting is almost as common as feeding. Fasting is a practice as old as life itself, it is certainly not a fad or a fashion.
Let us examine for a brief moment the many and different conditions and circumstances of life under which fasting occurs. In nature it is extremely common. Animals are observed to fast,
during the mating season – example, male salmon, penguins, the Alaskan fur seal bull.
during hibernation, for example, badgers, bears, bats, many rodents and many insects.
during aestivation, examples, crocodiles, species of frogs, snails and many insects
during metamorphoses, examples, many insects, frogs when developing from tadpoles,
when wounded or injured – any severely wounded animal will abstain from food,
when sick, for example, your own domestic animal, cat or dog, will abstain from food when sick,
when food is not obtainable, for example, during droughts, floods, after storms, when imprisoned by natural disasters, such as snow, avalanches etc.
when angry excited or in pain,
when not hungry, for example snakes that often do not eat except after long intervals,
after birth, examples, certain spiders, most mammals and some birds,
when eating is not possible, for example, many insects which during the adult stage are devoid of mouth and digestive system,
in captivity, the prime example is the famous marine iguana
I am sure it is foreign to some readers that there are many animals that spend more time during their lives fasting than they spend eating. It does not seem to reduce the animal’s strength or lower their resistance. May we view fasting as a cure for disease? There are no cures, fasting is a physiological rest for a proscribed period. Under conditions of rest the living organism does things for itself that it cannot do under conditions of feeding. Healing is a vital process, it is a biological process, it is not a process carried on from without, it is intrinsic. Fasting per se does not do anything, it is, in actual fact, the cessation of doing. Fasting doesn’t heal, it does not remove the cause of disease, but it does give the body the opportunity to eliminate toxins, to achieve a degree of mental, physical and physiological rest. Fasting does not correct the mode of living, the mode of living must be corrected, the lifestyle must be attended to, it requires education and discipline. Fasting is but one of many aspects of a total program of living that may make recovery possible. It is an essential part of the program but it is not the only part.